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How Is Fukushima's Fallout Affecting Marine Life?

Posted May 03, 2013 1:40 PM

From Oceanus:

The Fukushima nuclear disaster delivered an unprecedented amount of radioactivity into the sea over a relatively brief time. How did that pulse of cesium and other radioisotopes make its way through the marine food chain? Scott Fowler, who helped pioneer marine radioecology for more than 30 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency's Marine Environment Laboratories, offered a primer on the subject at the Fukushima and the Ocean Conference in Tokyo in November 2012.

Re: How Is Fukushima's Fallout Affecting Marine Life?

05/04/2013 9:53 AM

Your phrasing makes me very unsure what you are asking. The concentration of radioactive contaminants makes no difference in the half life of the contaminants. The concentration of the radioactive contaminant does effect the radiation dose it produces while it decays. There are also many other first order differential equations involved in concentrations and dispersions that have been demonstrated true with the aid of radioactive tagging.

Re: How Is Fukushima's Fallout Affecting Marine Life?

05/04/2013 9:17 AM

I agree and disagree in that order. This is certainly another conspiracy. This article is but one part of the conspiracy. The fallout is causing an issue none the less. The very understandable paranoia over radiation contaminated food is correct in principle (particularly poignant with Japan's history) but likely to be overly cautious over time.

The issue becomes apparent when one examines the whole system and not the individuals. The short lived prey species in this area have certainly become contaminated by the fallout from Fukushima. Some of these critters will die prematurely from the radiation and a slightly higher mutation rate than normal will happen. However, the short lifespan of these critters combined with the large numbers of young produced by each spawning makes these effects virtually invisible. The scavenger and predator population in this area is where the issue happens. These populations are also contaminated because they consume the prey. The predators and scavengers typically have much longer life spans, are smaller in number and smaller reproductive rates than prey. Thus radiation hazards impose a much more significant effect these species. Since the local population of people (the ultimate scavenger and predator) are acutely aware of the risks of radiation from their past history, a counterintuitive twist is happening. People eat the scavengers and predators from the sea. So radiation monitoring of seafood caught for this area drives the fishing fleets ultimately away from these areas. So the regional balance of human predation changes. Areas away from Fukushima have more fishing to support human life. I am certain that the fatality rate from radiation in the "hot" zones is far less than the fatality rate from fishing. So predator and scavenger sea life in the hot zones improve while things are hot and slightly decline outside of these zones due to higher fishing.

Is this issue a good or a bad thing, yes and no. It all depends on who answers this question. The crabs immediately downstream of Fukushima will have an easier life but are more likely to die from a radiation related complication. A crab anywhere else will be more likely to be caught and shipped to Japan to be eaten. I say that this issue is neutral, either both or neither. It is an issue none the less.